Masteries

Offense:
9

Defense:
0

Utility:
21

Introduction

There are many TF builds in the world. Some are old, some are new. Some are AP, some are DPS. I've played my fair share of games, and this is the build I use. You are not a carry. You are not a nuker. Your primary function, using this build, is to destroy the enemy's buildings. Certainly, you can contribute to team fights, with red cards, gold cards and wild cards. But the most help you will give to your team is the gold from turrets and the constant pushing on lanes.

This is meant to be an up-to-date TF guide. Many guides around the internet are several patches old.

Updates

Blue card mana regen was reduced by 50% in the latest patch. This does not change the style overall, but now you do have to be more cautious with mana. You will still have lots of regen from runes, dorin's ring, and sheen/lich bane, and blue card still returns some mana.

The most unfortunate change to this is that they are no longer free at low levels. :'(

Runes

Flat AP for more power early game.
Mana regen for maximum spamming of your cards.
Magic pen so your attacks aren't ignored.
Scaling AP for continued potency, no matter how you farm.

Masteries

We go for cooldowns. Other utility is just for fun.
Obviously, line up a point on each summoner spell you get.
Move speed's great, money is always nice, more mana regen is also appreciated.
Blah blah blah.

Items

We push cooldown and lich bane.
You will get to the point were you destroy towers like nobody's business. They will fall faster than any other champ. Guaranteed. Throw wild cards into the oncoming minions, hit the tower, with your lich bane proc. Wait two seconds, hit pick a card for the first time, hit the tower, with your lich bane proc. Choose blue card, time isn't a pressure, but you should be able to pull it the first time. Wait another two seconds, throw your cards at the oncoming minions, repeat. Once you have lich bane, instead of sheen, the tower should be down by now. The evil tome and your third spell will get you all the cooldown you need to land a lich bane/sheen proc every two seconds. All game long. This is your bread and butter.

After evil tome and lich bane, you can build however you want. AP is the name of the game. Make smart choices based on the game. Rabadons is almost always a good choice.

Skill Sequence

We want to max out wild cards first, after getting one rank in each of the other skills. Then max PaC, finally get Stacked deck. Ult comes first, of course.

Pick a card is useful for the stun and slow. However, the most powerful aspect of this is the blue card. The blue card doesn't get any love in most builds, this one relies on it. Mana regen? Good. Blue card + several hundred AP? Better. Suppose you realize you're almost out of mana, after spamming red cards and wild cards every 3.6 seconds each. Two blue cards, and you're back.

Wild cards is how you harass, damage, kill. This is your best skill vs things that move. Champions? Mow them down. Creep wave? Hit every single one with a card while they're in a line, suddenly they're all (almost) dead.

Stacked deck is not the best, in terms of damage. If you pay attention, you can harass with every fourth card, but I usually don't bother. The bonus from this is cooldowns. DPS builds like to use the AS buff, and we'll appreciate that a little bit. But the big deal is cooldowns. With this spell, your evil tome and masteries, you'll be at 40% cooldown.

Your ult. We'll talk more about this later.

Summoner Spells

The first spell is up to you. I like ghost, gets you out of sticky positions, which you may find yourself in very commonly with this build. Others could be flash, ignite, etc.

Teleport is a must. This will be the other half of your power, with the first half being your ult.

Gameplay

Last hit, harass, do what you can. This is not a laning guide.

You should take mid, if you can. A solo lane, otherwise. You want to get to level 6 as soon as you can. Your ult is not the most damaging, or the most feared, but it is the most useful. Period.

Once you get to 6, you can give mid to someone else, or keep it, if you're feeling good about it. TF has very little escape power (from a direct gank) so ghost or flash is useful here. Mid gets ganked easily, so you have to be careful. I don't stick around mid much past level 6.

Gank top, gank bot, gank mid, gank gank gank. If you're successful, you'll have a good game. If not... *shrug*. Hope your team is good. The early game, you primarily want to farm.

Once team fights start, you have two choices. You can participate, or not. If you do, wild cards. Any time it's up, throw it. Aim if you want. Stun first if you can. DO NOT charge in for a stun. You will be targeted and killed. But in team fights, wild cards, wild cards everywhere.

Or, you can "back door". You have the most mobility of any champ. Your move speed isn't the best. Ghost, lich bane, help this, but you can go ANYWHERE when your ult is up. Not to mention you can check for ganks before you arrive. Ult, or teleport, into an empty lane. Push it as much as you can. Wild cards and red cards will take down the minions, blue cards on towers will refill your mana and destroy them quickly. Leave 2 seconds before you feel uncomfortable. This could be to teleport to the other empty lane. Which you can then push like a boss. Blue pill once you feel uncomfortable. Your team may have won or lost the team fight, but they did get a tower or two out of it. You can do this every 54 seconds.

The point is to push lanes, push every lane, all the time. Hold towers against super waves, push down towers, take inhibitors in the blink of an eye. The other team can either keep defending all the lanes, or lose towers left, right and middle. If they do the first, you've succeeded. Even if your team loses, you won. But it means your team can go 4v2 or 4v3 on a lane. And once some or all of the other team comes for you, you can catch the remaining members with your ult + stun.

This takes practice, and you run a large risk of dying. In the long run, it seems to be worth it.

If your ult is up, and there is an exposed enemy inhibitor, ult to it, destroy it. You can ignore enemy champions even as they start to attack you. Blue card + wild cards + lich bane procs should kill the inhibitor in 4-6 seconds, about the same time it will take anyone to get there. You need enough AP to do this though. Multiply your AP by 10, and if that is more than 4000, you can destroy the inhibitor.